Editorial: Youth institute

Starting soon, Long Island will be getting guidance on the region’s future from the very people it is losing: young people. The question is, will the leaders of the community listen?

Molloy College has launched The Sustainability Institute, which brings policy analysis and sustainability education under one school.

The institute’s programs and projects will include a task force dedicated to encouraging local governments to adopt clean energy practices. There’s also an effort on bringing environmental groups together, and there’s an interfaith network to help places of worship reduce energy consumption.

The institute’s new executive director is Neal Lewis, the former head of the Long island Neighborhood Network and widely considered the leading environmentalist on Long Island. Obviously that’s a feather in Molloy’s cap.

But the key to Molloy’s, and the region’s, success will be the students. Will enough Molloy undergraduates come up with green ideas worthy of consideration? And the bigger challenge is whether many of the talented students will stick around long enough to effect the changes they recommend.

For too long, Long Island’s leaders have largely ignored the brain drain, paying it lip service but developing little in alternative housing to keep younger residents around. The hope here is the institute will improve long-range planning, tying the students to the communities they too often flee.

The institute’s worthy plans won’t mean much, however, if leaders of Long Island finally pay attention to what some smart, motivated young people think will make this a good place in which to invest their futures.
Rejected again

With Broadwater, the liquefied natural gas terminal pitched for Long Island Sound, rejected by the federal government and state officials, it’s time for everyone on both sides of the issue to cool off and come up with a plan acceptable to environmentalists and energy companies alike.

Broadwater execs should not fight the decisions, and detractors need to clearly state what they would favor. This region is facing a critical energy shortage, and compromise must replace conflict.

Placing an LNG terminal in the ocean would take a lot more work and therefore would be more expensive. But it is time to consider the Atlantic, because the plan put forth by Shell
Oil and TransCanada is not going to get built